US State Department announced plans to allocate up to 160 thousand dollars for a program aimed, among other things, at ” extending access to information” and “development of critical thinking skills and media literacy” among Serbian population.
As specified in the document, to achieve the goals, the American side will use the help of future contractors whose tasks will include the implementation of courses of English language.
The new initiative should mainly involve interaction with young people, students, teachers and young professionals. In some cases, collaboration with media or civil society representatives is also possible.
“The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade understands that English language skills offer opportunities to improve Serbian citizens’ employment prospects, increase access to information and knowledge, and promote critical thinking and media literacy,” the text notes.
The grantees will also have to focus on other issues, such as promoting “mutual understanding” among the nations of the Western Balkans, strengthening ties between American and Serbian students and businesses.
At the same time, the initiative will ask contractors to focus on progress towards Serbia’s EU accession. Particularly, it’s about the necessity to improve English language of the local officials in order to communicate with their EU colleagues.
The document implies that grantee activities can take any form. Thus, the necessary work may be carried out in the framework of seminars, courses, hackathons, online projects and other activities.
The amount of funding the U.S. is willing to allocate to implement the program must not exceed $160,000.
Vladimir Olenchenko, senior fellow at the Centre for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, commenting on the US initiative, said that Americans always follow a certain pattern in their policy.
“Such courses are aimed at identifying leaders who will be ready to defend the American point of view. I think in Serbia the US will pursue just such a goal… The Americans are encouraged by the example of Ukraine, where they have invested a lot of money, also with the aim of disorienting young people. Perhaps, they think that in Serbia they will be able to achieve similar results,” Olenchenko concluded.
In January, it was reported that the US Department of State intended to fund initiatives that would promote American culture and values among the people of Serbia. The agency planned to allocate up to $400,000 for this purpose.
For many years, the United States has been implementing similar projects in several countries. According to experts, such policies involve interference in the internal affairs of the countries where they are carried out.
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